


"First Line is the Hardest..."

by matrixrefugee



Category: Castle
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-18
Updated: 2019-02-18
Packaged: 2019-10-20 06:17:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17617088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/matrixrefugee/pseuds/matrixrefugee
Summary: Rick is trying to start a new book. His family is unwittingly interfering with the creative process





	"First Line is the Hardest..."

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [](https://fic-promptly.dreamwidth.org/profile)[fic_promptly](https://fic-promptly.dreamwidth.org/)'s [Castle, Rick Castle, starting a new book](http://fic-promptly.dreamwidth.org/120531.html?thread=5757395#cmt5757395)

The call of the story, the lure of the plot. Scenes already playing out in one's mind, rear-projected on the projection screen of one's retinas, the brain a camera. Of course, the scenes never came in one easy chronological stream, like your typical slick Hollywood blockbuster: no, they emerged like a post-modern experimental film. And it fell to him, Richard Castle, to unsnarl the skein of narrative, to create the scene and set it properly, to add color and proportion to the characters that emerged onto the field of the tapestry, to spin out the threads of dialogue and weave them through the fabric of the tale.

_"HAH-HAH-HAH-HAH! HOH-HOH-HOH-HOH! HOOOO-AAHH! HOOOO-AAHH! HOOOO-AAHH!"_ echoed from the living room.

And to be able to handle the interruptions and nuisances gracefully. Mother's acting classes, relocated till the exterminators finished clearing her studio of spiders. He looked up from the laptop on his lap as the door opened and Alexis, with an armload of textbooks and her tablet clutched to her chest.

"Mind if I get away from the troop of howler monkeys that just invaded the living room?" Alexis asked, pushing the door shut behind her with her hip.

"Long as you don't make the flames of inspiration flicker: I was just getting to the end of page two of _Icebound Heat_ ," Castle replied, still not looking up.

"Please tell me there's no other distractions in this room? No Internet? No electronics?" she asked.

"Wifi router is shut down and I locked it away in my bottom bedroom drawer," Castle said.

"Good. The one place I won't dare go looking if the urge to go online and get away from the essays I have to write," Alexis sighed, looking weirded out.

_"YOH-YOH-YOH-YOH-YAAAAAAAHHHHH!"_ , the dawn chorus of howler monkey actors in training.

He reached to the desk at his right, fumbled open a drawer and felt for the packet of earplugs he kept there. Pulling out two pair, he tossed one to Alexis, who had settled her load of classwork on the desk. She caught them in midair.

"Icebound Heat? Awkward title sounds... awkward," she said, frowning.

"Working titles are never graceful things," Castle admitted. "By the time I reach the last line, this rough piece of carbon will be a well-polished stone."

"If Grandma's Brownie troop doesn't drive us mad in the meantime," Alexis said, screwing the earplugs into her ears before dropping into Castle's swivel chair. "Thanks for the earplugs, Dad, just don't say any more, I won't hear you."

"Neither will I, once I install the cones of silence," Castle said, screwing the second pair of earplugs into his own ears.


End file.
